- Hi Jeff -
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- Food in Africa has only become a problem since Colonialism
ended. Prior to that Africa was a net exporter of food. Africa, under White
rule produced a large variety of foods and commercial crops which not only
fed Africa but was sold internationally and made many African countries
very wealthy. Rhodesia was but one example. In Tanzania, (German East Africa),
100 years ago... the Germans were already starting to cultivate vast tracts
of land. In Kenya, 60,000 white farmers turned parts of Kenya into heaven
on Earth. And so the story goes.
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- Whites in Africa were almost pathological in their dedication
to creating a modern world and especially in agriculture. They did
amazing things here. Now the blacks starve to death - and I think it serves
them right for killing thousands of white farm families and driving them
off their lands, destroying their property, etc. The blacks did not appreciate
what the whites were trying to do and to share it with them. So, let's
see them get up off their asses and go and do it themselves. So far,
despite endless years of BOLD TALK, the blacks are achieving almost nothing.
That is why over one BILLION people are starving and hungry today.
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- Africa - 1.02 Billion Hungry People In 2009
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- FAO Hunger Report Published
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- The sharp spike in hunger triggered by the global economic
crisis has hit the poorest people in developing countries hardest, revealing
a fragile world food system in urgent need of reform, according to a report
released today by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the
World Food Programme (WFP).
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- The combination of food and economic crises have pushed
the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels more than
1 billion people are undernourished, according to FAO estimates.
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- Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing
countries. In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated 642 million people ! are
suffering from chronic hunger; in Sub-Saharan Africa 265 m! illion; in
Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million; in the Near East and North
Africa 42 million; and in developed countries 15 million, according FAO's
annual hunger report, The State of Food Insecurity, produced this year
in collaboration with WFP. The report was published before World Food Day,
to be celebrated on 16 October 2009.
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- Decade-long trend
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- Even before the recent crises, the number of undernourished
people in the world had been increasing slowly but steadily for the past
decade, the report says. Good progress had been made in the 1980s and early
1990s in reducing chronic hunger, largely due to increased investment in
agriculture following the global food crisis of the early 1970s. But between
1995-97 and 2004-06, as official development assistance (ODA) devoted to
agriculture declined substantially, the number of hungry people increased
in all regions except Latin America and the Caribbean. Gains in hunger
reduc! tion were later reversed in this region as well, as a result of
the food and economic crises.
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- The rise in the number of hungry people during both periods
of low prices and economic prosperity and the very sharp rises in periods
of price spikes and economic downturns shows the weakness of the global
food security governance system, FAO said.
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- "World leaders have reacted forcefully to the financial
and economic crisis and succeeded in mobilizing billions of dollars in
a short time period. The same strong action is needed now to combat hunger
and poverty," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. "The rising
number of hungry people is intolerable. We have the economic and technical
means to make hunger disappear, what is missing is a stronger political
will to eradicate hunger forever. Investing in agriculture in developing
countries is key as a healthy agricultural sector is essent! ial not only
to overcome hunger and poverty but also to ensure! overall economic growth
and peace and stability in the world."
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- "We applaud the new commitment to tackle food security,
but we must act quickly. It is unacceptable in the 21st century that almost
one in six of the world's population is now going hungry," added Josette
Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme. "At a
time when there are more hungry people in the world than ever before, there
is less food aid than we have seen in living memory. We know what is needed
to meet urgent hunger needs - we just need the resources and the international
commitment to do the job."
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- Another blow for poor households
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- Several factors have conspired to make the current crisis
particularly devastating for poor households in developing countries.
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- First, the crisis is affecting large parts of the world
simultaneously, reducing the scope for traditional copin! g mechanisms
such as currency devaluation, borrowing or increased use of official development
assistance or migrant remittances.
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- Second, the economic crisis comes on top of a food crisis
that has already strained the coping strategies of the poor, hitting those
most vulnerable to food insecurity when they are down. Faced with high
domestic food prices, reduced incomes and employment and having already
sold off assets, reduced food consumption and cut spending on essential
items such as health care and education, these families risk falling deeper
into destitution and the hunger-poverty trap.
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- In for a penny, in for a pounding
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- The third factor that differentiates this crisis from
those of the past is that developing countries have become more integrated,
both financially and commercially, into the world economy than they were
20 years ago, making them more vulnerable to changes in international markets.
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- Many countr! ies have experienced across-the-board drops
in their trade and financial inflows, and have seen their export earnings,
foreign investment, development aid and remittances falling. This not only
reduces employment opportunities, but also reduces the money available
to governments for programmes promoting growth and supporting those in
need.
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- The 17 largest Latin American economies, for example,
received $184 billion in financial inflows in 2007, which was roughly halved
in 2008 to $89 billion and is expected to be halved again to $43 billion
in 2009, the report said. This means that that consumption must be reduced,
and for some low-income food-deficit countries, adjusting consumption may
mean reducing badly needed food imports and other imported items such as
health-care equipment and medicines.
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- The report includes case studies compiled by WFP in five
countries Armenia, Bangladesh, Ghana, Nicaragua and Zambia
showing how hou! seholds are affected by the fall in remittances and other
impacts of the economic downturn and how governments are responding to
the crisis by investing in agriculture and infrastructure and expanding
safety nets.
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- These interventions will help to save lives and families,
the report says, but given the severity of the crisis, much more needs
to be done.
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- FAO and WFP continue to advocate a twin-track approach
to address both the short-term acute hunger spurred by sudden food shortages
and the longer-term chronic hunger that is symptomatic of extreme poverty
as a way for durable solutions.
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- "Small-scale farmers need access to high-quality
seeds, fertilizers, feed and technologies to be able to boost productivity
and production," Diouf said. "And their governments need economic
and policy tools to ensure that their countries' agriculture sectors are
both more productive and more resilient in! the face of crises."
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- Original date published: 14 October 2009
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- Source http://allafrica.com/stories/200910150823.html?viewall=1
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- Posted By Jan
- AfricanCrisis Webmaster
- Author of 'Government by Deception'
http://www.straighttalk.co.za/shop.asp?ID=1
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- http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=61919&
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